10 THINGS TO DO WITH KIDS ON A RAINY DAY

One of the biggest changes one feels in parenthood is the drastic change in our lifestyle!

Most of the times, partying with friends on weekends, long drives at the drop of a hat and late-night movie shows, seem like a distant pipe dream or just memories of a bygone era!

For parents, life on weekends can be monotonous and dull, especially on rainy days. Parents don’t want to step out owing to the traffic and chaos, while kids want to go out and have fun.

Parents often are caught in a fix, how to have fun with kids while staying at home!!!

An enthusiastic child locked indoors usually leads to tantrums (out of boredom) or heavy dependency on gadgets.

Here are a few activities that you can do with your kids over the weekends without stepping out.

1. Don’t feel like stepping out your bedroom? Put those pillows to good use than just a resting place for your head. Build a pretend fort or car or race track or doll house. Alternatively can also use those carboard boxes lying around from your recent online shopping spree.

2. It’s important to teach children patience and focus. A good board game can ensure they are not bored. Depending on the age group – Monopoly, Scrabble, Game of Life, Pictionary are all time favourites. Card games help with their motor skills and analytical skills too! There are a lot of new board games in the market, we will try to keep reviewing some periodically.
3. The left brain should not be ignored either! A lazy afternoon is the perfect time to unleash some creativity. Fabric clue, some trinkets and your kid’s old white t-shirt/shirt/pant or some old bag is the perfect opportunity to let their creative juices flow. Both parent and child can sit with a blank piece of paper and draw their versions of the same thing, example a sunset or a picnic and use different mediums like water colours and crayons to express their ideas. You will be surprised to see what your child’s vision includes.
4. For motor skills again – One can try to build a castle with cards, or a candy stick house and then colour it.
5. At some point of time everyone is bound to feel hungry: use that opportunity to get into the kitchen with your child. They can be involved into baking their own pizza or cookies or cupcake. Decorating it and dressing it – and then of course, eating it!
6. The entire day need not be wasted idly, there can be some learning too.
   • Pickup a new skill to learn – like NATO alphabets, Morse Code, Numbers and greetings in other languages
7. Bob the builder and Handy Manny are popular cartoons with kids, sometime, they can be real too! Use this day to orient your child with the toolbox in the house. Get them involved in trying to ‘fix’ some things around the house. Do ensure the toolbox stays locked at all times when you are not around.
8. Not all fun things need complex instruments, tools or expensive materials – a pen and paper is all that is needed to play games like Tic Tac Toe or Hangman.
   • What are your favourite games to play with just a pen and a paper? Write to us and share your views.
9. Old paper lying around the house can be put to good use by teaching your child how to make a paper plane or boat or a crane or swan by foraying into the basics of origami.
10. After all this hard work throughout the day, even the parents will need to relax and unwind – perfect time to turn your living room into a theatre and enjoy a family movie with some snacks.
    • We shall be curating and reviewing a list of family movies and good to watch kids’ movies. Keep watching the site for more.

So the next time, rain makes you feel gloomy – you can ensure it becomes a reason to SMILE for you and your child – as every unexpected holiday = a fun family day!